There are many benefits to getting work as a babysitter. The hours are flexible for one thing: some families will only require babysitters on certain evenings whilst others may need somebody for entire days or nights. This kind of work is perfect if, for example, you are studying during the day but need some extra money coming in to supplement your income. If you are the kind of person who is used to dealing with children, patient and able to remain calm in sometimes trying circumstances then you may well be suited to it. If you’re interested, here are some steps you can take toward getting babysitting work:

• Get Experience: Before you throw yourself into a proper babysitting job, it’s probably a good idea to get a little experience beforehand. Otherwise how do you know if you are going to be able to do it or not? A good place to start is to ask any friends or family members with children whether they would like you to look after their children for the odd day or evening. This is a way of ‘testing the water’, so to speak. You may find that you love looking after children or it may be the most stressful experience you’ve had! This step is particularly important for those people who have not previously spent much time around children.

• Get Qualifications: At this point you may be thinking, what qualifications? It’s true that many teenagers do babysitting work so there are no major formal exams you need to pass. However, it’s a very good idea to have a first aid certificate if you are going to be looking after children. Indeed, if you decide to sign up to a babysitting agency you may well find that this is one of their requirements. It’s also a good idea to understand all the health and safety aspects of caring for children. And of course, if you are a looking after children with special needs you may well need more specific training.

• Work Out Your Hours: It’s important that you know the average hourly rate for babysitters in your area. This way you have something to aim for and you won’t price yourself out of the market either. Once you know the hourly rate you can work out how many hours you can feasibly handle in order to make enough money to get by. If you are student you will have to balance this out with leaving enough time to study. If you don’t have many other obligations then naturally you will be able to take on more work.

But once you are sure you want to take up babysitting work on a regular basis, how do you go about finding it? Here are just three possible routes to go down:

• Ask Around: Ask around your friends and acquaintances. If you’re lucky you may be able to find a family looking for a babysitter and then your friends can act as references.

• Advertise: No doubt you have seen plenty of community notice boards in shops, on university campuses and so on. Many people use these to advertise their services as a babysitter so it’s worth trying this avenue. You could also try putting an advert in a local newsletter or even using social media to spread the word.

• Babysitting Agency: If you are looking for regular work, you best bet is to signing with an agency such as RockMyBaby. Once they have done a background check and you are on their roster, they will find the work for you. They will also sort out things like contracts, payment, overtime and so on. This is ideal for those that don’t have a huge amount of time to spend searching for work.

But whichever of the above routes you go down, you should always arrange to meet the family and spend a little time with the children before actually taking on the job. This way you will get to know a bit more about them and you can gauge whether they are going to be the right ‘fit’. This will help both you and them get off to a much more confident start.